Nora Magid Mentorship Prize Winner Announced - ASHLEY PARKER
A Penn senior majoring in English and Communications, and a Benjamin
Franklin Scholar, Ashley Parker has done internships at the New
York Sun and
the
Gaithersburg Gazette, and has served as features editor and writer at
both
34th Street and the Daily Pennsylvanian. She is a smart, thoughtful
writer
of both newspaper and magazine stories, and brings the passion and
heart to
non-fiction that Nora Magid so valued. A Bethesda native and graduate
of
Walt Whitman High School, Parker spent part of her junior year at La
Universidad de Sevilla in Spain and is near-fluent in Spanish. She is
also a
point guard in Club Basketball.
The Nora Magid Mentorship Prize is given each year to a senior at the
University of Pennsylvania who shows exceptional ability and promise
in
non-fiction writing and editing, and who would benefit most from
combined
mentorship of Nora's network of former students and their colleagues.
The
prize is $1000, which is to be used as a stipend for transportation,
lodging
and meals as the student travels to New York, Washington and elsewhere
to
develop professional contacts at magazines, newspapers, publishing
houses
and broadcast networks.
Nora Magid was an extraordinarily gifted and giving teacher of
non-fiction
writing at the University of Pennsylvania from the mid-1970s until her
death
in 1991. During those years, she nurtured an amazing number of
students, who
came to be known as "Nora-ites." In 2003, a group of them came
together to
create a prize and mentorship program in her memory. The prize is a
component scholarship fund of The Philadelphia Foundation. Donations
to the
fund are tax deductible, and can be made online at
http://www.philafound.org/donors/donate%20on-line.html#anchor92383.
While Ashley Parker's mentorship will begin immediately, she will
receive
her award at a luncheon in New York which is being organized for late
February.
Our thanks to all the Penn seniors who applied for the award this
year, and
to all the Penn faculty who wrote recommendations.
If you have any questions please feel free to call or e-mail either of
us,
or visit the website at www.NoraPrize.com.
Stephen Fried, stephenfried@comcast.net, 215-592-1662
Eliot Kaplan, ekaplan@hearst.com, 212-649-2064
The Nora Magid Mentorship Fund scholarship committee is:
Miriam Arond, editor-in-chief, Child Magazine
Barri Bernstein, executive director, Tennessee Bar Foundation
David Borgenicht, owner and publisher, Quirk Books, author
Sandee Brawarsky, author, book columnist, The Jewish Week
Jean Sherman Chatzky, author, financial columnist, Money Magazine &
Today
Show
Lisa DePaulo, writer-at-large, GQ
Stefan Fatsis, author, sports columnist, Wall Street Journal &
National
Public Radio
Loren Feldman, editorial director, Inc. magazine
Stephen Fried, author, adjunct professor, Columbia University Graduate
School of Journalism
Eliot Kaplan, editorial talent director, Hearst Magazines
John Prendergast, editor-in-chief, Pennsylvania Gazette
Joel Siegel, producer, senior editor and writer, ABC's "World News
Tonight
with Peter Jennings"